Spirit of Unity the Spirit
Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
This week we continue Paul exhortation to the Ephesians in Chapter 4 about how we as Christians need to live in unity and harmony with each other, not only in the Church, the big church, the Church Universal but as Christ’s representative to the world around us.
We might recall from last week that unity among Christians is not something that we need to create; it was established by God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all people, both Jew and Gentile, righteous and lost, because Jesus came to save all people. We simply need to maintain it, preserve it, to sustain it.
We know that the Spirit of Unity was sent by to us by Jesus, to remain with us after He left to return to the Father, to be our advocate and guide. When we come to faith we were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit was given to us as a seal, as a sign of our redemption in Christ. We are no longer what we once were but we are made to be new in Christ. Because of the Father has poured out the blessing of the indwelling of the Spirit into our lives. The indication of having been reconciled to our Father through the redemptive actions of Jesus is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Friends, as Christians, you have security in your standing with the Father and in His world. Your position in the kingdom has been guaranteed. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. You are guaranteed salvation when that time comes. Our certainty and security is founded and determined by the completed work of Christ.
Our security as a believer is not in our health, or our wealth, or our giftedness, or our standing in the church, or in our talents and graces. Our security of the believer is in Christ alone and it is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that marks us as secured.
What gives us the assurance and hope in our eternal destiny and in the sufficiency of the scriptures for the living of these days? It is of course the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with us that brings these things to us. The Spirit has opened your eyes to all of these things which bring you joy to act Christ-like to those around you in the present and to act more like those that have received love, forgiveness, grace and mercy when we deal with others.
We know all too well that in many cases, it is our tongues that get us into trouble. To keep us from running afoul of the Holy Spirit, no evil of corrupting words should ever come out of our mouths.
Through the Ephesians, Paul is telling us that we should avoid destructive language or evil language. The concern for believers, as we noted last week, is that in the Spirit of Unity we should be building up the Body of the church. But evil, corrupting words not only do not build up the body but they can destroy and diminish the Body and lead seekers and onlookers to be repelled by the people in the Church.
Not only that but when we as a congregation or as a denomination or as a society, begin to tolerate destructive talk, when we participate in vile and unholy speech, we aid and abet the destruction of unity and thereby grieve the Holy Spirit of Unity.
Additionally, it is not enough to say that there is no corrupting talk coming from our lips, if there are no affirming words that help to build up the church coming from our lips either. Speaking truth into others builds up them up when it is kind, it is true and when it is needed. How many times have we heard, it is not what you say, but how you say it and when you say it that matters most.
Paul tells us that if we are going to keep evil and corrupting words from harming the unity of the church and the spiritual growth of the people around us, we must: Put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
How perfectly simple is that yet it seems to allude so many of us on a regular basis. Note Paul’s use of the word “all”, not some, not once in a while, remove all of these corrupting attitudes and actions from our lives, zero tolerance.
If the church is going to live together in unity and be effective in transforming lives of the people around us, it cannot allow these six attitudes to be tolerated either within the walls of the church or outside of those walls where the world through the influence of the Evil one, is happy to stand in judgment of us as pious hypocrites. How many times have you heard the World say that about Believers? Some of it may be the Evil One’s disdain for the Children of God coming out of the mouths of unbelievers but some of it, much of it is the their actual reaction to who we say we are and the words and actions that belie that truth.
When we allow corruptive and divisive words and actions to take a front row in the public and social discourse as Christians, as the supposed Body of Christ, we move from simple disunity and move into aiding and abetting the evil one’s alienation of seekers and believers from the Truth that is intended to be found in reverent faithfulness.
When the world see’s us act this way to each other, they say we are disingenuous because we are acting the same or worse than the world which is without the love, grace and mercy of the Father. How we treat each other suggests, predicts, anticipates for them how we will treat them. We must not let that happen!
They will say that these attitudes of bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice are exactly what the world is already offering to them. Why would I want to go to a place that acts like that, then expects different, expects better from me? No thanks I get enough of that from a world filled with discord, disunity and corruption and evil already!
Rather we should take to heart what Paul is telling the Ephesians, what Paul is telling Christians today, which is that we must take seriously the call to preserve unity within the church for its’ benefit and in the world, for to world’s benefit.
If we don’t, if we would rather continue to talk about others, talk around others rather than talking to each other, then as Paul says we are grieving the Spirit of Unity because our words do not build up the Body of Christ rather it breaks it down, diminishes it and ultimately destroys it.
Friends, bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice must go, all of it, in any measure at all if we are going to preserve the Spirit of Unity within the Church, within our denomination, within our society and in the World.
Paul has told us how not to act and fortunately he has also told us which attitudes and actions that we must have to build up each other thus building up the Church itself. He says that we personally and we collectively as the Church need to display kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness.
Luke tells us in the sixth chapter of his Gospel that kindness should be for all not just some. It should not be selective, just for those who agree with us or treat us in the manner that we would like but rather it should be given to all people regardless as to whether you like them or they like you.
Being tenderhearted means acting in grace toward another, 1 Peter 3:8 tells us: Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. If we act towards others with a tender heart, we can’t possibly not also show love, humility and a spirit of unity all of which work to build each other as well as the Church.
Then of course, forgiveness, which is not the type of “forgiveness” where you are simply willing to ignore or forget something someone has done to you. That is the forgiveness that the world is willing to give and is also the forgiveness that most of us usually give. God inspired and instilled forgiveness is not having a case of selective amnesia but rather it is a case of having intentional deletion of the slight, it is the intentional and complete removal of the blot against our soul. This is the type of forgiveness that can only be created by the inner working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Hear the Good News my friends………
To paraphrase the Apostle Paul: Put away falsehood, speak the truth to our neighbors, for in unity we are one. Let no unholy words come out of your mouths, speak only what is useful for building up. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving. Friends, we have the power to change world by defeating the evil one just like Jesus. When the Spirit of God preserves unity in the people of God, the evil one loses power and control over the world.
Just like the Easter story when Jesus erased our debt and then defeated death in the tomb, our preservation of unity makes the evil one a defeated foe. Paul wrote today: Do not allow room for the devil within the Church and within the world around us. Brother and Sisters, we cannot, we should not, we must not let the evil one corrupt us or our words and actions. We cannot allow him to get a foothold on us or on the Body of Christ that we serve nor in the world in which we live.
Friends you have the power within you to preserve Christian unity and deny the evil one control over you, the Church, society, and the World by showing Godly attitudes and words filled with kindness, having a tender heart and offering forgiveness to all. In that way we can all be sure to become imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us in the Spirit of Unity. Amen.